Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Bahrain WEC: Audi takes pole for its final LMP1 race

Audi claimed pole position for its farewell race in the World Endurance Championship in Bahrain

Oliver Jarvis and Lucas di Grassi took the pole in the #8 Audi R18 e-tron quattro by two and a half tenths from the #1 Porsche qualified by Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley.

The pole-winning car's average of 1m39.207s compared with the Porsche's 1m39.471s.

Jarvis, who set his best time on his second lap, said: "I got traffic on my first lap and my second was a scrappy lap, but when I saw the time, I knew we had the pace.

"Lucas jumped in the car and put it on pole."

Andre Lotterer had topped the times by a tenth from team-mate Jarvis after the first runs, before di Grassi posted a session best that was just over a second quicker than Marcel Fassler in the sister car.

Bernhard returned to the wheel of the Porsche for a second run and improved his time to vault from fourth to second position.

Team-mate Marc Lieb did likewise in the championship-leading sister car and lowered the average of the 919 he qualified together with Neel Jani to put the car third on a 1m39.669s average.

Lotterer also made a second run but failed to improve on his time, which left the #7 Audi on a 1m39.698ss average.

The two Toyotas ended up fifth and sixth after both losing times to track limits violations.

Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayahsi took fifth in the #6 Toyota - which has a slim chance of overhauling the #2 Porsche for the title this weekend - on a 1m40.222s average, which was half a second up on the sister car qualified by Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima.

The G-Drive Racing squad took its sixth LMP2 pole of the season by just two one hundredths from the Signatech Alpine team.

Rene Rast was more than a second quicker aboard the Jota-run G-Drive ORECA-Nissan 05 than Gustavo Menezes in the Signatech ORECA, but Stephane Richelmi closed the gap to the pole winners when he went up against Roman Rusinov.

Aston Martin claimed pole in GTE Pro after Darren Turner and team-mate Jonny Adam set identical times aboard the #97 Vantage GTE.

Their time of 1m56.953s put them just over a tenth up on team-mates Marco Sorensen and Nicki Thiim, who ended up on a 1m57.081s average.

Gianmaria Bruni and James Calado were a further three tenths down in the best of the AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTEs with a 1m57.380 average.

The best Ganassi Ford GT was half a second back in the hands of Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell.

Pedro Lamy returned to the wheel of the GTE Am Aston he shares with Paul Dalla Lana to claim their sixth pole this year after losing the best time from his first run for exceeding track limits.

QUALIFYING RESULT

Pos Class Driver Team Car Gap
1 LMP1 L.di Grassi, L.Duval, O.Jarvis Audi Sport Team Joest Audi 1m39.207s
2 LMP1 T.Bernhard, M.Webber, B.Hartley Porsche Team Porsche 0.264s
3 LMP1 R.Dumas, N.Jani, M.Lieb Porsche Team Porsche 0.462s
4 LMP1 M.Fassler, A.Lotterer, B.Treluyer Audi Sport Team Joest Audi 0.491s
5 LMP1 S.Sarrazin, M.Conway, K.Kobayashi Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota 1.015s
6 LMP1 A.Davidson, S.Buemi, K.Nakajima Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota 1.569s
7 LMP1 M.Tuscher, D.Kraihamer, A.Imperatori Rebellion Racing Rebellion/AER 5.884s
8 LMP2 G.Menezes, N.Lapierre, S.Richelmi Signatech Alpine Alpine/Nissan 10.483s
9 LMP2 M.Rao, R.Bradley, A.Lynn Manor ORECA/Nissan 10.827s
10 LMP2 R.Gonzalez, F.Albuquerque, B.Senna RGR Sport by Morand Ligier/Nissan 11.203s
11 LMP2 T.Dillmann, G.van der Garde, S.Gelael Extreme Speed Motorsports Ligier/Nissan 11.478s
12 LMP2 J.Canal, R.Gonzalez, R.Merhi Manor ORECA/Nissan 11.593s
13 LMP2 R.Dalziel, P.Derani, C.Cumming Extreme Speed Motorsports Ligier/Nissan 11.864s
14 LMP2 D.Cheng, H-Pin Tung, P-L.Chatin Baxi DC Racing Alpine Alpine/Nissan 11.978s
15 LMP2 N.Minassian, M.Mediani, M.Aleshin SMP Racing BR Engineering/Nissan 12.220s
16 LMP2 V.Petrov, K.Ladygin, V.Shaytar SMP Racing BR Engineering/Nissan 12.268s
17 GTE Pro J.Adam, D.Turner Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 17.746s
18 GTE Pro N.Thiim, M.Sorensen Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 17.874s
19 GTE Pro G.Bruni, J.Calado AF Corse Ferrari 18.173s
20 GTE Pro A.Priaulx, H.Tincknell Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK Ford 18.684s
21 GTE Pro D.Rigon, S.Bird AF Corse Ferrari 18.994s
22 GTE Pro S.Mucke, O.Pla Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK Ford 19.297s
23 GTE Pro R.Lietz, M.Christensen Dempsey Racing - Proton Porsche 19.675s
24 GTE Am P.D.Lana, P.Lamy, M.Lauda Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 20.672s
25 GTE Am F.Perrodo, E.Collard, R.Aguas AF Corse Ferrari 21.020s
26 GTE Am P.Ragues, R.Taylor, R.Brandela Larbre Competition Chevrolet 21.731s
27 GTE Am M.Wainwright, A.Carroll, B.Barker Gulf Racing Porsche 22.905s
28 GTE Am C.Ried, W.Henzler, J.Camathias KCMG Porsche 1m00.369s
29 LMP2 R.Rusinov, R.Rast, A.Brundle G-Drive Racing ORECA/Nissan -
30 LMP1 S.Trummer, O.Webb, P.Kaffer ByKOLLES Racing Team CLM/AER -
31 GTE Am K.Al Qubaisi, D.H.Hansson, P.Long Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing Porsche -

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Bahrain WEC: Porsche completes free practice sweep
Next article Ex-F1 driver Robert Kubica to test WEC LMP1 car in Bahrain

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe